Pages tagged Voting-rights

On September 25, Yalla Vote will be part of a nationwide effort to ensure that no eligible voter is left out of this year’s election. AAI will join almost 250 organizations from across the country, including Yalla Vote partner NNAAC, for National Voter Registration Day, with the goal of registering thousands of new Arab American voters.

It’s more important than ever that Arab Americans get to the polls and make their voices heard. It’s estimated that 6 million eligible voters failed to cast their ballots in 2008, and Yalla Vote was designed to give our community the...

Voter suppression has been the story of the 2012 elections, and Florida has been in the thick of it. Last week, a federal court upheld the U.S. Department of Justice’s finding that Florida’s 2011 law narrowing early voting to 8 days would place an unfair burden on minority voters in 5 counties: Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough, and Monroe. To circumvent the court ruling, state election officials suggested that these counties offer 12 hours of voting during the 8 days. Four counties agreed. But Harry Sawyer said no. “My opinion was that the old law worked fine” said Sawyer,...

Voting rights activists in Virginia suffered a defeat on Monday, as the U.S. Department of Justice approved Virginia’s new voter ID law. The legislation, which requires voters to bring identification to the polls for the first time, will go into effect in time for Election Day in November.

The law has a more expanded definition of acceptable ID than most other voter identification laws across the country, and according to Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, the DOJ found that the law does not violate the Voting Rights Act. The Brennan Center for Justice has found that...

Opponents of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law were dealt a significant blow Tuesday, as Judge Robert Simpson refused to strike down the legislation. Although he expressed sympathy with those Pennsylvanians who would be burdened by the new voter ID requirements, Simpson ultimately decided that the state’s efforts to address the problems with implementing the law were sufficient to uphold it.

Despite the setback, however, voting rights groups and others opposed to the law filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Thursday morning, and hope to show that the law would cause unconstitutional voter disenfranchisement.

Last week brought another victory for opponents of Texas’ controversial voting rights law, as a federal judge in Galveston struck down new voter registration regulations on Thursday.

The voting law was passed last year by the Texas legislature, and has since faced opposition from the federal government. The Department of Justice blocked the law’s provision requiring voter ID in March, and a D.C. federal court is now considering the Texas lawsuit against the DOJ that followed. Opponents of the law cite statistics from the Brennan Center for Justice that show voter IDs negatively and disproportionately impact...

Governor Rick Scott's controversial voter purge was revitalized last week, when the Department of Homeland Security granted Florida access to its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. The SAVE database will give election officials the identification numbers of non-citizens living legally in the United States, providing Gov. Scott's administration with another method of adding names to the list of those considered ineligible to vote.

Florida’s voter purge is just one part of a widespread effort to restrict voter turnout and GOTV efforts, which is taking place in some 27 states across...

Protecting the voting rights of disadvantaged and minority Americans has been a challenge in the United States since its first elections, and despite widespread laws to prevent racism and discrimination at the polls, the problem of voter suppression persists today. In 2011 and 2012, 27 states around the country saw legislation introduced with the purported goal of combatting voter fraud. However, the Brennan Center for Justice, among other groups, has pointed out that these laws could disenfranchise as many as 5 million eligible voters who don’t have easy access to things like government-issued photo IDs or voter...

Many members of the Armed Services will find it difficult to participate in this year's elections because of the government's reliance on outdated and inadequate voting, notification, and ballot delivery systems. The mishandling and delaying of registration forms and absentee ballots disenfranchises thousands of our servicemen and servicewomen…. The Commander-in-Chief, the Department of Defense, and state and local election officials must do more to protect the voting rights of those on the front lines of freedom. That means using expedited mail delivery to bring ballots to and from our troops abroad, including those serving in areas of conflict, while completing...

The Republican party affirms that any regulation of the political process must not infringe upon the rights of the people to full participation in the political process. … [Gov. Bush’s agenda will] preserve the right of every individual and all groups—whether for us or against us—to express their opinions and advocate their issues. We will not allow any arm of government to restrict this constitutionally guaranteed right.

The foundation of our democratic republic is our commitment to conducting free and fair elections. Unfortunately, in November 2000, too many people believed they were denied the right to vote. Many African Americans, Hispanics, and others fear they may lose the right to vote because of inaccurate or insecure technology or because of a rolling back in the gains made by the passage of civil rights legislation. Our national commitment to a voting process that has integrity was underscored in 2002 when the Congress passed and the President signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). We will continue to do...